Sociology 230

Nations and Nationalisms

Spring 2002

Rogers Brubaker

Friday 1:30-4:20, Rolfe 3106

Office hours: Haines 232, Wednesday 2-3 or by appointment

5-1129, brubaker@soc.ucla.edu

Nationhood and nationalism are among the defining phenomena of the modern epoch. Yet they remain remarkably elusive and -- despite a burst of recent scholarship --strikingly understudied by comparison with other central phenomena of modernity such as states, classes, cities, revolutions, industrialism, and capitalism. A few outstanding earlier works notwithstanding, it is chiefly in the last two decades that a considerable theoretically and historically informed literature has begun to emerge.

As a field of inquiry, the study of nationhood and nationalism remains largely uncodified. There is little agreement about basic concepts or key questions, let alone about answers. Certain standard oppositions are routinely invoked in the literature -- the opposition, for example, between objectivist and subjectivist accounts of nationhood, or between modernist accounts of the origins of nationhood and nationalism and their critics. Yet the literature is organized less around oppositions between clear-cut theoretical positions than around differing conceptualizations of what is significant, interesting, and worthy of exploration and explanation.

Precisely because the field remains wide open, there are rich opportunities today for challenging, pathbreaking work on nationhood and nationalism. Much territory remains uncharted; the fundamental, perennial questions remain heatedly contested; and the world generates new material every day. By fostering a close and critical engagement with a body of key writings, this course seeks to cultivate ways of thinking about nationhood and nationalism that will leave students equipped to do independent work in this or related areas.

This is a reading course, not a research seminar. No research, or research paper, is required. The course pivots on the critical examination of key writings in the field. This requires (1) close, critical reading of the literature assigned each week; (2) active participation in class discussion; (3) initiation of discussion, in the form of short (5-10 minute), clearly-focused presentations of key analytical issues by two (or in some cases three) students each week; and (4) preparation each week, after the first week, by all students (with one grace week allowed), of a short memorandum (one or two typed pages) developing, criticizing, or otherwise engaging an analytical issue, question, or problem raised by the reading. (This should not be a summary of the reading, but a response to the reading.)

The weekly memorandum is intended to inculcate the habit of writing as a natural accompaniment to all reflective reading. The memoranda will not be graded; but their submission is a firm requirement of the course.

The memoranda will be posted to an Annotation Board on the class web site. Using software developed by Mike Franks, members of the class will be able not only to read but to annotate one another's memoranda by adding footnotes with comments or questions keyed to particular passages in a memorandum.

So as to allow students and the instructor ample time to read the memoranda before class, the memoranda are to be posted to the web site by 9am Friday at the latest. Students will be expected to read each other's memoranda before class, and will be encouraged to annotate them. In this way participants can develop web-based discussions that parallel the classroom discussions.

Initiators of discussion should not, if possible, read a written text, and should not summarize the readings; rather, they should bring into focus the key analytical issues raised in the readings and pose analytical questions about or (if they wish) analytical criticisms of the readings.

At the end of the quarter, there will be a take-home final examination. The questions will be distributed at the last meeting of the class on Friday, June 7; the examination will be due in the Sociology Department office by Friday, June 14 at 4 PM.

Required readings are listed below by week. Three books have been ordered for purchase at the ASUCLA Bookstore. The first two are required. The Calhoun book is recommended, though selections from Calhoun will be included in the course reader.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations

Craig Calhoun, Nationalism [recommended]

All other readings have been collected in a course reader, which is available for purchase at Course Reader Material, 1141 Westwood Blvd, tel 443-3303 (it's always a good idea to call first to make sure a copy is available; if not they'll run off another one). Course Reader Material is open Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, and Sat 10am-4pm.

April 5: Introductory meeting: What are we talking about when we talk about "nation" and "nationalism"? Please note that the first meeting is a substantive meeting. Materials should be read before the class. If you have not yet purchased the reader, the first week's readings only can be accessed on line: Go to www.library.ucla.edu. On the left hand side, click "Reserves" link; then click "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials" link. Select department: "Sociology"; then course number: "Soc 230". There should be individual links to each piece.

Definitions and Perspectives

Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and States, pp. 1-5

Joseph Stalin, excerpt from "Marxism and the national question"

Ernest Renan, "What is a Nation?"

Rogers Brubaker, "Rethinking nationhood"

Max Weber, Economy and Society, pp. 922-926

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp 1-7

Katherine Verdery, "Whither 'Nation' and 'Nationalism'?"

Craig Calhoun, Nationalism, pp 1-12, 18-23

Benjamin Akzin, States and Nations, pp. 9-13

Anthony Smith, Theories of Nationalism, pp 167-191, 211-229

Traditions of Research

Anthony Smith, "Nationalism and Classical Social Theory"

Veljko Vujacic, "Sociology and Nationalism"

April 12: Modernist Perspectives

Ernest Gellner, "Nationalism," in Thought and Change

Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, pp. 8-14, 16-18, 24-50, 53-75, 123-30, 139-43

Ernest Gellner, "Reply to Critics," in The Social Philosophy of Ernest Gellner, pp. 622-629, 636-639

Karl Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication, pp. 1-3, 70-111, 127-138, 161-7

April 19: Nationalism and ethnicity in the context of the modern state

John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 2nd ed., pp. 366-403

Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, pp. 80-100

Craig Calhoun, Nationalism, Chapter 4

Clifford Geertz, "The integrative revolution"

Andreas Wimmer, "Who owns the state? Understanding ethnic conflict in post-colonial societies"

Michael Keating, "Stateless nation-building: Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland in the changing state system"

John Meyer, "The world polity and the Authority of the Nation-State"

April 26: Cultural Contexts

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities [book ordered for purchase]

May 3: Constructivist Perspectives, Being/ Becoming National, Cultural Politics, Nationalization

Eric Hobsbawm, The Invention of Tradition, pp. 1-14, 263-283, 298-307

Pierre Bourdieu, "Identity and Representation"

Jocelyn Linnekin, "Cultural Invention and the Dilemma of Authenticity"

Richard Handler, "On Dialogue and Destructive Analysis"

Orvar Löfren, "The Nationalization of Culture"

Orvar Löfren, "Materializing the Nation in Sweden and America"

May 10: The limits to modernist and constructivist accounts

Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations [book ordered for purchase]

May 17: Religious Nationalism

Mark Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War?, Chapter 1

Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, Chapter 1

Peter van der Veer, "Riots and Rituals"

Roger Friedland, "Money, Sex and God?"

Roger Friedland, "Bodies of Nations"

May 24: Groups, categories, boundaries, identities

Max Weber, Economy and Society, pp. 40-43, 341-348, 387-398

Frederick Barth, Introduction to Ethnic Groups and Boundaries

Richard Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, Chapter 5

Craig Calhoun, Nationalism, Chapter 2

Donald Horowitz, "Ethnic identity"

Jonathan Okamura, "Situational ethnicity"

Rogers Brubaker, "Ethnicity Without Groups"

May 31: Rational choice and microanalytic perspectives

David Laitin, "National revivals and violence"

David Laitin, "Marginality: a microperspective"

Michael Hechter, "The Dynamics of Secession"

Timur Kuran, "Ethnic norms and their transformation through reputational cascades"

Ronald Rogowski, "Causes and varieties of nationalism: a rationalist account"

June 7: Normative Debates: Nationalism and Beyond

Juergen Habermas, "The European Nation-state -- Its Achievements and Its Limits"

Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship, chs. 2, 5

Jeremy Waldron, "Minority Cultures and the Cosmopolitan Alternative"

David Hollinger, "Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and the United States"